Echinoid Spines from the Anisian (Middle Triassic) of Qingyan, South‐ western China

Echinoid remains from the Triassic of China are described for the first time. The Middle Triassic of Qingyan in Guizhou Province, south‐western China, has yielded nine taxa of primary spines; seven of these come from the lower Upper Anisian. Because all of the spines are disarticulated, the material is treated only parataxonomically. ‘Cidaris’ lineola (Bather) and ‘Cidaris’ wissmanni (Desor) are species originally described from the alpine Triassic of Europe. ‘Cidaris’ bangtoupoensis sp. nov., ‘Cidaris’ wachangpoensis sp. nov., ‘Cidaris’ venustespinosa sp. nov., ‘Cidaris’ fangchui sp. nov., ‘Cidaris’ gu sp. nov., ‘Cidaris’ mafengpoensis sp. nov. and ‘Cidaris’ sp. A are so far known only from Qingyan. Palaeoautecological interpretations based on the shapes of the spines fit well with the fact that the echinoids from Qingyan are part of highly diverse fossil associations which represent the remains of communities that lived in a protected, shallow‐marine, stable soft‐bottom habitat. The rather high diversity of the echinoid spines in terms of the number of both taxa and general types of shape shows that the echinoids, after nearly becoming extinct at the end of the Palaeozoic, began a new phase of adaptive radiation in the Anisian at the latest.